


What Really Happened to the Narn Telepaths?

by pallasite



Series: Behind the Gloves [68]
Category: Babylon 5, Babylon 5 & Related Fandoms
Genre: Backstory, Bigotry & Prejudice, Book of G'Quan, Canon Compliant, Episode: s03e06 Dust to Dust, Episode: s03e14 Ship of Tears, Episode: s05e19 The Fall of Centauri Prime, Fix-It, Gen, How canon misled you, Narn, Narn History, Narn Telepaths, Psi Corps, Shadows (Babylon 5) - Freeform, The Corps Was Right, Worldbuilding, telepaths
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-20
Updated: 2017-08-20
Packaged: 2018-12-17 12:59:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 978
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11852073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pallasite/pseuds/pallasite
Summary: We take a short detour and talk about Narn telepaths for a bit.The prologue ofBehind the Glovesishere- please read!





	What Really Happened to the Narn Telepaths?

**Author's Note:**

> What is this series? Where are the acknowledgements, table of contents and universe timelines? See [here](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10184558/chapters/22620590).
> 
>  _Behind the Gloves_ is an in-depth series exploring a different side of the Psi Corps from the one presented in canon. This collection of stories presents readers with history, context, and slices of the lives of relatable protagonists covering 150 years of canon history, from the inception of laws that segregated telepaths through the aftermath of the Telepath War. By providing readers with the "rest of the story," with a nuanced (and not "one-sided") presentation of facts and events, I demonstrate that canon is misleading, and the truth is not as it seems.
> 
> If you like _Behind the Gloves_ and would like to send me an email, I can be reached at counterintuitive at protonmail dot com. Do you have questions? Would you like to tell me what you like about this project? Email me!

In _Dust to Dust_ , G'Kar tries to buy the drug on the black market.

G'Kar, to the dealer: I'm not trying to create a market. I'm looking for a weapon that can be smuggled in, concealed easily and used to strike at our enemies, learn their secrets, perhaps even destroy them from the inside.

Mr. Lindstron, the dealer: Whatever. One warning: This stuff is made primarily for humans. It has a chemical master key that can address the DNA sequence of most nonhuman species. But, as far as I know, there are no Narn telepaths. You may not even carry the gene.

G'Kar: There are no Narn telepaths now. But once, long ago, there were.

Mr. Lindstrom: Yeah? What happened to them?

G'Kar: They and their families were exterminated. The telepath gene has never been strong enough in the survivors to breed a natural telepath.

_Oh? Exterminated by whom?_

In _Ship of Tears_ , we learn the "history" of the fate of these Narn telepaths, a thousand years before:

Sheridan: Michael, you look like the proverbial cat that ate the equally proverbial canary.

Garibaldi: I've got it. I've got it, I've got it. It's right here. It's right - right here.

G'Kar: Do not thump the Book of G'Quan. It is disrespectful.

Sheridan: You've got what? What's in there?

Garibaldi: G'Kar, as I understand it, there aren't any Narn telepaths, correct?

G'Kar: Yes, I'm afraid it is so. It is a matter of great concern to us.

Garibaldi: But once upon a time, there were Narn telepaths, weren't there?

G'Kar: Yes, but they and their families were wiped out a thousand years ago. The gene that controls telepathy has never been strong enough in any of the survivors to breed another one.

_They **and their families** were wiped out a thousand years ago._

_Little itty bitty Narn babies._

G'Kar: Mr. Garibaldi, I'm not entirely sure I see the point in all this.

Garibaldi: A thousand years ago, ambassador. You said the last time the Shadows were on the move was a thousand years ago. G'Kar, it says here that your world was used as a base by the Ancient Enemy during that time.

G'Kar: Yes, that is correct.

Garibaldi: All right. Read this. Right here. "And the spirit of darkness moved upon the land. It screamed in the dreams of the mindwalkers. And they fell, destroyed by it, to their children and their children's children. Then did the darkness come to Narn until it was driven out by G'Quan and the last of the surviving mindwalkers."

Sheridan: Mindwalkers. Telepaths? They're afraid of telepaths.

\-----

Now, we already know that many human telepaths have normal parents. Even if all the telepaths of Corps-level strength were wiped out - and even if all the telepaths _strong enough to have a rating_ were wiped out - telepaths would still be born to normal parents.

But something different happened to the Narn, because the gene itself was wiped out of the entire population - among billions and billions of Narn, across all the Narn worlds, there hasn't been a single telepath in a thousand years.

The way it's presented in the Book of G'Quan, the Shadows killed a lot of Narn telepaths (including children), G'Quan and the last remaining Narn telepaths drove out the Shadows and defeated them, and every single Narn telepath died in this war. Not only that, but somehow, every single Narn who wasn't telepathic, but who carried this gene, also mysteriously perished.

They all banded together, fought the Shadows, and sacrificed themselves for their race.

Or maybe that's not what happened at all.

Maybe, the Shadows were killing the telepaths. Maybe the other Narn realized that the telepaths could help them fight the Shadows, and some percentage of the telepath population did rise up with the others and fight the Shadows back. And then perhaps, the Narn decided it wasn't such a good idea to have telepaths after all. Maybe they were scared of them. Maybe they were jealous of them. Maybe they felt the telepaths' purpose was "finished," and they wanted to be rid of the threat these telepaths supposedly posed to Narn society, that telepaths were just "too big a weapon" to keep around.

After all, humans feel that way about telepaths, now, don't they? See, _The Fall of Centauri Prime_. Franklin: "You ever been out to see the San Diego ruins? Well, I have. The thermonuclear device used by the terrorists to blow up San Diego could be traced right back to the breakup of the Soviet Union in the late 20th century. When they fell, all of their weapons ended up with smaller governments who didn't understand them, sure as hell couldn't build them, but were eminently willing to use them. The great thing about war is that it advances technology. Bad thing about war is that most of the technologies are destructive. And once the war is over, those weapons are still around. ... Weapons like telepaths."

So maybe, just maybe, they didn't all martyr themselves. Maybe some fought the Shadows and perished, and the other Narn - possibly even led by the new Cult of G'Quan - decided telepaths were too much a risk to keep around, and wiped them all out: the men, the women, the children, and all the non-telepath Narn who carried the gene. And then maybe, as happens after so many genocides over the course of history, they tried to erase what they had done. G'Quan wrote in the holy book that all the telepaths had martyred themselves to save the Narn race. So much nicer that way.

And, maybe, humans are only an inch away from trying to do the same thing to human telepaths, for the same reasons.

We all know there's only one major force standing in the way of them doing that. A force they'd also like to get out of the way.


End file.
